A materials testing program which involves irradiating specimens of various materials/objects of interest and measuring the changes caused by the exposure. Mechanical measurements of length, width and thickness, and optical measurements of fiducial marks (cross-hair patterns scribed on the surface of the specimens at manufacture and which provide measurements of possible flexations at the surface of the specimens) are all desirable.
Many kinds of equipment have been designed to accomplish such measurements, but none have been designed for automated use in a hot cell (the enclosed environment used for working with radioactive materials). The majority of the available coordinate measuring machine designs use air bearings, which require frequent maintenance that would be difficult to perform in a hot cell. Further, the materials of construction required for a radioactive environment are not used sin the coordinate-measuring art. Finally such measurements are normally done in an environment in which the temperature is carefully controlled. This is not possible in a hot cell.
Another important feature that is required in the nuclear field that is not recognized in the coordinate-measuring art is the importance of verifying the accuracy of test results while testing is still going on. A sample undergoing radioactive decay may undergo further change. A sample might returned to a reactor for additional irradiation. In either case, the measurements cannot be duplicated when analysis of results indicates a need for repeating a measurement.